Tuning pegs, also known as tuning keys, may be used in tuning instruments, machines, machine heads, tuners, and various other hardware. A tuning peg is used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrument. Turning the peg tightens or loosens the string, changing the pitch produced when the string is played and thereby tuning it. Tuning pegs may be typically made of for example, ebony, rosewood, boxwood or a metallic material. Some tuning pegs are ornamented with shell, metal, or plastic inlays, beads (pips) or rings.
Tuning pegs are particularly useful in stringed instruments, such as, for example, guitars, ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, violins, violas, cellos, and various bass instruments wherein the tuning pegs are operative to control the tension in the strings of the instrument.
The number of tuning pegs configured on an instrument may depend on a quantity of strings an instrument has. For example, a bass guitar may only have four strings and, thus, comprise four tuning pegs, whereas a guitar may have up to twelve strings with twelve tuning pegs.
Each string instrument may have a unique tuning peg design and configuration. The size and shape of the tuning peg may be directly proportional to the qualities of the string to which the tuning peg is configured. Sometimes, the thickness and length of the string may determine the peg size.
The larger the tuning peg size, the more angular leverage it may provide to a musician in tuning a corresponding string (e.g., increasing or decreasing the string tension with a rotation of the tuning peg). Accordingly, bass guitars may comprise large tuning pegs, whereas violins may be configured with smaller tuning pegs.